The European Commission has adopted on June 9 2010 a draft proposal amending staff regulations ahead of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the bloc's future diplomatic service envisioned in the Lisbon Treaty.

The changes, which were discussed intensively with the staff unions, are aimed at ensuring equal treatment between the EEAS’s three sources of staff – from the European Council, the European Commission and the 27 EU member states' national diplomatic services.

These proposals pave the way for setting up the basic framework of the EEAS’s personnel policy, but do not concern its organisation chart or the details of its future staff policy, a European Commission media statement said.

The main purpose of the proposed amendments is to assure the main human resources requirements needed to set up the EEAS, by organising the transfer of Commission and Council officials to the EEAS together with the recruitment of national diplomats, the statement said.

Vice-President for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration Maroš Šefčovič said: "The establishment of this new diplomatic service is a huge opportunity for the EU. Our goal is to make sure that the EEAS is staffed in the most efficient, transparent and fair way possible, in accordance with the aims of the Treaty. It is vital to ensure proper representation and geographical balance of staff from national diplomatic services and we have proposed a number of measures to achieve this."

Composition of the EEAS

Once the decision on the establishment of the EEAS comes into force, large numbers of staff will be directly transferred from the Commission and the Council to the EEAS, either on an individual basis or as part of a unit.

All vacant posts will be published and open to candidates from national diplomatic services.

In addition, in order to guarantee adequate representation of staff from national diplomatic services, the High Representative - the post currently held by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton - may decide that, until June 30 2013, priority may be given for certain posts in the EEAS to candidates from those services in case of substantially equal qualifications.

After this first phase, equal access would also be extended to officials of the European Parliament and other EU institutions, the statement said.

Equal treatment
In addition to open selection procedures, the proposals would give equal treatment to all staff in terms of working conditions.

Successful candidates from national diplomatic services would be employed as members of temporary staff, giving them the same conditions of employment as officials.

These temporary agent contracts could be renewed beyond the current limit of six years.

Furthermore, if there are officials who have been transferred from the Commission or the Council and who wish to return to their institution of origin, the institutions will facilitate this mobility by treating these individuals in the same way as internal candidates of their institutions, according to the statement.

The EU's Lisbon Treaty, which came into force on December 1 2009, created the office of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, and specified that this person would be assisted by the European External Action Service (EEAS).

The establishment of the EEAS requires what is termed an "establishment decision", which was submitted to the European Council on April 22, amendments to the financial regulation and the staff regulations, as well as the adoption of an amending budget.

Article 27 of the Lisbon Treaty states that the EEAS shall comprise officials from the relevant departments of the Council, the Commission, and staff seconded from national diplomatic services of the EU member states.